The Physics Behind Halo 3 (HELP!)

well it sounds good, the only problem i can foresee is that you cant get actual lengths and sizes, only relative and possibly percentages compared to other object sizes. And also the problem of seeing the effect of gravity in a game on a two ton box, and trying to get an actual two ton box. If you could get it to work though it would be good. Find an equation for bounce height to weight/height or what percent of its original height per bounce an object on earth bounces. Things like that. This will require some math since it is all relative, but if you work on it and see if the halo objects compare to actual equations it could work, but dont try dropping a two ton box in real life to see a comparison. May result in injury. I wish you good luck.

 

Sorry, doesn't look like it...

Answering in order to the questions you asked.

1: Not very accurate
2: Not many, a catapult map was made that launches people.. however that's the most I've seen of any physics in this game. That map does involve parabolas, so you may be able to use that. Not sure of the catapult map creator, make sure to include credit (or banz will occur)
3: A block falls faster than a hornet, one of the flying devices. The hornet itself does not accelerate as it falls at 9.81 meters per second squared. It has a constant vertical velocity. In sandtrap, there are things called Drop Pod, Closed. They are essentially the same size as a man, yet when you drop it on a 10 ton elephant, it has the power to move it.
4: It all depends on which objects you drop as I explained, some fall faster than others.
5: A flat wall laid on it's side falls at the same rate without any air resistance as a weapon, for example.
6: There is a slight amount of acceleration due to gravity, however I think it caps off at some point. You can experiment with this by going into forge mode, going into the sky, turning into a human, dropping to the ground. Before you hit the ground, go into forge mode again, and go to the top of the zone. If you do these steps a few times, you'll notice you stop accelerate, most likely to preserve the integrity and flow of the game.
7: Buoyancy, as far as I know, plays hardly any role in halo, and if it does, it is inconsistent. You can kill somebody in the water, and sometimes their body will float, and sometimes it won't... even though (technically) master chief weighs a few tons himself.
8: Again, the objects weight is unrealistic compared to real life. If you did create a balance system with a radio antennae, you would need to make it so it could pivot freely without falling out.. and be able to easily place new items on it. You would be able to tell which weighs more by measuring the displacement of the radio antennae.
9: As far as I have noticed, all vehicles.. large and small, drop at the same rate. Also the friction of their wheels is unrealistic. When going up hills, they do struggle, but I think that's mostly because of the increased angle measure of the slope. The game seems to take into account changes in variables such as angles, instead of using the actual Force of weight from real life.
10: Inertia does seem to be programmed into the game, as when you are shot through a man cannon, you skip a few extra feet until the net force becomes zero again. I don't think it matters for different object sizes, mostly because most objects on Halo are hollow. They do not have mass inside of them, and the game doesn't have fixed variables set to them to represent realistic kilograms.
11: Friction, except for vehicles, seems to be absent in this game. I don't think any calculations you would make would be reliable.
12: The only grenades that act different as compared to others are spike grenades, which tend to have two planes of motion. (rotational and parabolic). However the grenades are thrown at fixed arches in regards to how high you are looking up.
13:

 

Halo 3's physics engine is hardly accurate. I'll grant that it's complex, but to call it accurate would be a very far cry from reality. It's based in the Havok system, which is an immensely popular engine used by a good number of game developers. It has a number of holes and exploits which can be used to players' advantages, allowing them to run on surfaces that, by right, a SPARTAN-II would never be able to run on.

Still, I do think that it would make for a good science experiment, and that you can put a lot of work into it and get a lot of data out of it. I'd run it by your teacher first, just to be safe, but it's unique enough that I think it's worth a shot. ^_^

 

This sounds like a very interesting science project, and I am sure you'll get plenty of kudos. So I'll try and answer some of these things as best I can. Note that I have never taken a Physics class (thought I will be taking Honors Physics next year) so my knowledge is somewhat limited. However, through logic I think I have a fair shot at alot of these.

A simple way to test this is to drop to items from the skybox to the ground below (will need a second controller). Then go into forge, and see which hits the ground first, or if they hit the ground at the same time. It might not be the most accurate drop method (and I am sure you can create a switch that would re-create this more precisely) but it is a simple method to see.

However, I will have to say no. Wind resistance isn't a factor I have often seen in video games or at all to be honest. In Halo 3 in particular, I do notice that Hornets appear to fall slightly slower than normal objects if you "abandon ship" while in the air. Though I do not believe this is so much related to the game's physics as it does the Hornet itself.

Items do increase in momentum the further they fall, yes. For example, take a mongoose and drop it about a box height from the ground. Then fly up as high as you can and drop it. From a short height, it might bounce, but from the higher height, it will bounce and roll upon impact. Another is the the "tele-trampoline". Take two Two-Way Nodes, and place them both on their side with arrows up. Then, stand ontop of an object and jump down into the first one. When you come out the second, aim to land back in it and so on and so forth. The more you do this, the more speed you gain. These are just two examples, but it does show that momentum can be increased.

Various items will float in Halo, most notorious is the Pallet. However, items such as drum canisters do as well, and in reality and all likelyhood (depending on what is inside) they would sink. So yes, while items do infact float or sink based on their density, is their density realistic? Or is it a density defined within the game that does not align with that of reality?

I would not suggest using the "hill" method to test such a question, seeing as "torque" and engine power comes into play. Rather, just drop them as I mentioned above. Though I am afraid that there will be no realistic way to determine how much weight effects the speed of vehicles.

To my knowledge, by laws of force and momentum, the more weight something has the stronger it's momentum; and in order to slow that object more force will need to be applied than if the object was lighter. Take the breaks on a truck for example. If you are driving down the hill with a truck and hit the breaks at the bottom, you'll come to a stop much faster than if the truck was towing a trailer and had additional weight.
Does this apply in Halo however? Well I can say that I have noticed my momentum being carried farther when in possession of a turret, but you should test to make sure such an observation is true.

For this I have little suggestions, but I do have to say know the difference between friction, and "snow" or "sand". I grenade will not bounce in snow or sand, because those things absorb its energy, but has no relation to friction. The only way I could possibly imagine testing this would breaking in a mongoose on various surfaces.

In your gametype, set it to recharging grenades. Then, in the game, adjust your aim and throw all the grenades (2 of each type) without adjusting your view. Then go into Theater and observe. Though I am going to say that grenades all have the same trajectory.

 

Gravity is the usual -9.81 ms^-2 in Halo 3, unless you change the gravity settings for a player.

Another thing you might want to consider is Newtons laws. Bungie even incorporated these laws into the game. The best way to see this is by jumping over a ramp on the pit, and then jumping again when you land on the ramp (every action has an equal an opposite reaction). If someone were to run alongside you, then you would see that the guy who did the jumps pulls ahead of the guy not jumping.

Also, grenades' trajectories do differ. Spike Grenades in reality are the size of softball bats; their trajectory is lower than other nades (plasmas are negligibly lighter than frags).

Try dropping a warthog and a crate from the same height on a map. Crates are very light, whereas Warthogs weigh in excess of two tonnes. They still both hit the floor at the same time.

Also, you could also show off the Halo 3 physics engine (which is actually a Havok engine variation) by throwing a grenade then firing a rocket launcher over the top of it. The grenade will cause the rocket to fly off course. All projectiles in Halo 3 have physics.

However,water is not displaced by objects

 

Real Sizes in the Halo Universe - Halopedia, the Halo Wiki - The definitive source for Halo information

Linky link. Ta-da, real sizes in the Halo universe.

 

If you want to look at video game physics engines then I would suggest Half Life and Valve's other games. Because a lot of the game uses physics (well, basically knowing that gravity pulls things downwards), Portal would be a good game to 'study', even the theory of portals. Think about things like if you have Portal A on a wall and Portal B on the ceiling and you stick you foot through Portal A, how would that effect the rest of your body? Standing on one foot is fine when gravity is only effecting your body in one direction but now you have the foot on the floor being pulled down and the foot in the portal being pulled sideways (relative to your position. Would you just fall over?

And the water displacement one reminds me of a question someone asked about modding Halo, they wanted to know where the plug is on Valhalla. They'd seen the flooded Valhalla mod and assumed there was a drain in the lake which the modder had blocked, causing the map to flood!

Also, doing a physics project based on Halo is rather hard. Especially since the ancient alien race that the whole trilogy revolves around at some level or another, basically took a look at physics and gave it the finger!

 

Slapping is deserved for saying this. Gravity doesn't pull downwards, and regardless down is a concept that humans came up with. Gravity is a force that attracts two objects of smaller, greater, or equal mass. The larger the difference between the mass.. and the larger the mass is, the more it pulls. So no, gravity does not pull things down, it pulls whatever can be pulled. Slap slap.

And as for weighing items, there's really no easy way to determine mass in this game. What you would inevitably need to do is create your own constant to balance objects. (1 tank = 4 crates; 1 chopper = 2 crates; 1 chopper = .5 tank; etc, etc.) I still think it's a bad idea to use halo for this project, its physics are very unstable and very inconsistent to that of real life. Again, it's up to you, but I'd try another game where the physics is more accurate.

 

Portal is a good game that includes advanced and accurate physics, but it offers less to work with. Maybe you could include a combination of games that have similar to real life physics? Use portal for acceleration and finding speed after you have gone through a loop portal x times.. etc etc. I guess people could suggest games that have good physics engines, and he can decide which ones he needs the most.

 

Oh yes. You are talking to me.

Get Half Life 2 for the PC (better off with the orange box in total) and the key part: GARRY's MOD. Like forge over 9000. The game has probably some of the most accurate physics in game history, and garry's mod is awesome. 40$ for both the Orange Box (5games) and Garry's Mod (pulls all the resources from your source engine games into a massive editor)